A lawsuit challenging Iowa’s ongoing use of seclusion and a mechanical restraining device known as “the wrap" in a state juvenile home for boys may proceed as class-action litigation, a judge ruled this week.

The State Training School for Boys in Eldora is tasked with rehabilitation, mostly for children transferred from other unsuccessful placements in the juvenile court system. Many have significant mental health illnesses.

The school says that it uses seclusion and restraint when a student’s behaviors threaten the safety of others, and that the use of such tactics typically lasts less than an hour.

But the congressionally chartered Disability Rights Iowa and a New York nonprofit called Children’s Rights Inc. contend in a lawsuit filed in 2017 that the practices are excessively used and unconstitutionally inadequate because they create risks of substantial harm to children with mental illness.

Some children are being left in “filthy, foul-smelling seclusion cells” for as much as 23 hours a day, the federal lawsuit filed on behalf of three former students of the facility contends.

A point-in-time review in May showed that at least two-thirds of the school’s students had been placed in isolation at least once, an increase from previous years. And the use of physical restraints increased from 157 times in 2011 to 759 times in 2017, court documents filed this week show.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are not seeking monetary damages but, instead, are asking the state to reform its future use of seclusion and restraints for the roughly 110 students who are at the school at any given time.

Class-action certification means that — if the lawsuit is successful — required fixes would likely be more holistic in their approach.

Iowa unsuccessfully argued that allowing the lawsuit to proceed as class-action litigation is overly broad and vague. The state has argued there is no guarantee that additional mental health services sought by the plaintiffs will help current students control their “assaultive and destructive behaviors.”

Judge Stephanie Rose for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa this week rejected the state’s argument and granted the class-action status. She cited testimony from psychologists who said use of neither the seclusion room nor the wrap was good for a student’s mental health.

“These are not statements that turn on individualized treatments or conditions,” Rose wrote in her March 13 ruling. “They apply to any student who receives mental health care or is subject to school policies governing isolation and restraints.”

Iowa is one of seven states that has no set time limit on keeping juveniles in isolation for disciplinary purposes, according to a July 2016 report by the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest. The other states are Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan and Wyoming.

“We will continue to seek adequate mental health care for the boys at the State Training School and an end to the unconstitutional use of solitary confinement and mechanical restraints,” Kirstein said. “Such an outcome will go far in helping these mentally ill youth to succeed and will also create a safer environment for the staff.”